Keisha Shakespeare, Freelance Writer
BEING IN the kitchen at an early age gives children a sense of good nutrition, said food and nutrition consultant Dr. Heather Little-White.
It helps them to know how to make the right nutritional choices, especially at the school canteen and in the face of the influx of fast foods, noted Little-White, who has run a kids cooking course from her Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, premises each summer since 1999.
LIVING WHAT KIDS LEARN
Former manager of Grace Kitchens, she has been teaching children how to cook from as far back as 1975 when she was a food and nutrition teacher at Green Island Secondary School in Hanover and then Cambridge High School in St. James.
This is important, she added, because of the increase in obesity and diabetes among children. "If children know how to make the correct nutritional choices then it will help them in their nutritional status as adults."
GET KIDS IN THE KITCHEN
It gives them a sense of independence. Most children are at home while their parents are at work so this helps them to make their own nutritious meal.
It gives them an opportunity in the food industry, in terms of career choices. It gives them additional skills to earn an income.
"Some of the children in my course make and sell brownies and lemonade in their complex," said Dr. Little-White. She noted that many students who have passed through her course have become food experts and pointed to Joan Patterson, a past student who became a food and nutrition teacher before migrating to the United States where is now a foodservice manager.
Cooking is fun and it's a social activity. It helps them to meet friends and feel good about themselves.
The next Little-White and Associates Kids Cooking course takes place mid-July. The programme includes tablesetting, etiquette, breakfast ideas, beverages, meat and fish dishes, and desserts.
